A Demonstration of Power — Shane Idleman

The Demonstration of Spiritual Power

1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 1. This topic this morning is obviously near and dear to my heart. I've written books on it. I like to preach on this topic and a part, second only to salvation, I think this is the most important topic Christians can discuss.

First being salvation, second being this. You curious what it is? All right, well let me put the title up there. The title this morning is a demonstration of power. From Paul's words, a demonstration of power.

And if I could put a subtitle there I would add, is your cord unplugged? You know what that means? You ever unplug something? What happens? The power is gone. Some of you are teenagers, you know, you go in and you pull that.

They don't have stereos anymore, you got to pull the iPod I guess. Or they have iPods now, it's apples and whatever it is now. It's hard for me to keep up with everything. But there's a connection to God, a demonstration of power.

And I'm going to talk to you about that this morning. Obviously once I was saved and believed in Jesus, I believe I was led astray for quite a while like the prodigal son. And it wasn't until this demonstration of power hit my life that I began to speak and write and the church came about.

And everything that God has ever done in my life, and I'm sure many of you can attest to this too, is directly related to the work of the Holy Spirit in our life. For any of us to take credit is a big mistake.

And just last week, somebody emailed me or they asked, with such a new young church, we're fairly young as far as churches go, but to have that many people coming and listening and how did you guys do it?

And actually we have no answers. I mean God moving God and I'm not being trite, I have no seven tips for success. I have no try this and see if it works. All you have to do is seek God with all of your heart, with all of your strength, with all of your mind, with all of your soul, and let Him do things in your life.

And then you look back and say, God, if it wasn't for the grace of God moving in our lives, we would be lost. So this is an important topic found in 1 Corinthians 2. And this is Paul, we're going to put it up on the screen.

The Apostle Paul, think about this, the writer of the majority of the New Testament, mighty man of God, saw miracles, saw people healed, raised from the dead, all kinds of things. This is Paul. He said, brethren, when I came to you, I did not come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.

For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Basically, he says, I didn't come wasting my time talking about all these different things. I wanted you to know about Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

That was the central focus of my message, that was my ministry. I didn't come to you with persuasive words and eloquency and I came to you with the power of the Spirit through the preaching of God's Word.

I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. We would look down on those things, wouldn't we? I'm going to tell you in just a minute why that is vitally important to this topic. So Paul came to them in weakness and in fear and in much trembling.

And my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom. So he's saying, do you ever hear those people that they can just speak well? I mean, they're fluent. Man, do they have a master's degree in grammar?

I mean, do they even offer that? I don't know if they've read the dictionary three times over. And they're just so eloquent and wow and captivating and persuasive speech. And they know how to use these words to bring up and these words to bring down.

And in this persuasive speech, he said, I didn't come to you with any of that. I came to you in the power of the Holy Spirit, preaching Christ crucified. My preaching was not with persuasive words of human wisdom.

But what was it? In the demonstration of the Spirit and of power. So the power of Paul's words, though he's dead, he still speaks to us 2 ,000 years later. The conversions he saw, the cities come to Christ, the churches that were built all from his ministry.

It wasn't on persuasive words. It wasn't on intellect. It was through the power, the anointing, the unction, the Holy Spirit coming upon him. The power of the Spirit. Because you can take a dumb country boy with no grammar education and let him loose with the Holy Spirit.

And he will penetrate the hardest heart. Because it's God's Spirit working in that person. And he said, I didn't come to you but in the demonstration of the Spirit and power. Why? So that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

See, when you have to convince someone of Christianity based on wisdom alone, you might lose them when that wisdom fails. But look, believe in Jesus because of this. And the Bible was written over 1 ,600 years with 40 different authors on three different continents.

And those are all good things. I use them often. But at the end of the day, they've got to experience the power and presence of Christ. That's their faith is built on Christ and Christ alone. It's not built on a man.

It's not built on a church. It's built on Christ alone. So the whole point was that their faith should not be in the wisdom of men but the power of God. So I want to get through all of chapter two today.

But guess what happened? I stopped right there. And God begins to put so much on my heart and it grows and grows and grows into a full length sermon. And that usually works pretty good when I allow God to just change things around a little bit.

Weakness, Fear, and the Holy Spirit's Power

But let's talk about this for a minute. The Greeks, Paul is writing to a Greek speaking world. They put much emphasis in persuasive speech, debating, debating often and being persuasive. But, which you know and I know, many people that God uses are often not gifted in the area of speech.

Correct? You're listening to one right now. D .L. Moody's. There's a long list of people, especially Methodist circuit riders and early awakenings and they didn't have a degree in English and grammar and they weren't a great speaker because where was their power?

It was their power is in their brokenness and in their weakness. And when I am weak, then he is strong. That's where the power of the Holy Spirit comes from. And Paul is saying here, our goal is to magnify the message, not to know anything among you except Christ and him crucified.

I'm going to give you a little insight into my ministry when I prepare sermons maybe throughout the morning here. But one of them is, I pray, Lord, I want to magnify the message of Christ. I want to magnify who you are.

We want to leave here lifted up and built up and strengthened. Look at how good our God is. That's why I love that song. All hail King Jesus. All hail King Jesus because we know every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Christ is Lord.

Everyone at some point will say, all hail King Jesus. So you might as well sing it now. Oh, I could stay there for a little while, but I'm going to go. Here's the key that your faith should not be in wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

So I'm sure many of you are thinking, what is power? What's he talking about? Shane, I see these guys on TV. They do weird things. Is that what you're talking about? No. I'm going to make this half blow over.

You know, I'll flow over. You know, and oh, look, it's so powerful. Or you see these, you know, maybe elevated in certain areas. And what's your definition of power? Well, I'm going to tell you what the biblical definition of power is.

Very simple. I believe it's Acts 1 .8. I didn't write down the reference. But it says, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And as we've learned earlier, it might be good for those who haven't heard this before, there are three primary prepositions when it comes to the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit will run alongside of a person. It's where you hear the high school there in town, Paraclete. It comes from the word in the Greek to come alongside. So the Holy Spirit comes alongside as a helper, as a comforter.

But he is also in the believer, E-N, inside the believer, dwelling in the believer. That's why you can quench and grieve the Holy Spirit by how you live, the choices you make. But there's a very interesting word that's used in Acts and also in Jesus' life, and the Holy Spirit comes upon.

E-P-I, epi in the Greek. It's coming upon. It's this overfilling, overflowing, abundant Holy Spirit coming out of your life. And what you say, what you do in your workplace, what you do in your family, it's bubbling out of you.

And I used this example before many times, but if you weren't here, you don't remember. But what would happen if I would let the water hose turn on the water in the baptismal and just leave it on? During my sermon, what's going to happen?

Uh-oh. What's happening? Here it comes. Here it comes. Same thing when the Holy Spirit comes upon a person. That's why they use that word baptized in the Holy Spirit, unction of the Holy Spirit, anointing of this Holy Spirit.

It's this overflowing abundance of God's Spirit that it just flows out. Those people who do the most for God are those who are filled with His Spirit. It comes out. But if we're not careful, what can we do?

We can quench and grieve the Spirit. How? You name it. Any type of sin that we love and we're not going to repent of and we take pride in it, anger, critical spirit. I've seen that. I've had to repent to this before.

Pray for me. In the church, we can have a critical spirit. We know what the Bible says. We know people aren't living like it. What's going on here? Mr. Pharisee comes out and be critical and judgmental, gossiping, complaining, slandering, backbiting, sin, hooked in, besetting sin from any type of addiction.

We just keep quenching and quenching and grieving the Spirit of God. That person will lack power. But thank God, he doesn't make us wait a year. You can pray like David, oh God, I've sinned against you and you only have I sinned.

Create in me a clean heart. Renew a right spirit within me. Fill me again with the Spirit of God. I'm repenting. I'm confessing. Wash me as white as snow. Cleanse my heart. And you can go from stuck in sin to filled with the Spirit of God in 0 to 100 in 1 .2 seconds.

There's consequences. I don't want to minimize sin, but I want to magnify what God can do in the life of a person who fully surrenders and repents of their sin and gives their heart to God. Anybody I've ever met before that has filled mightily with God's Spirit has struggled with sin.

They've repented of it. They've confessed. They bring it to the light and their power comes and that confession and that repentance. Do you know what happens when we try to hide sin? We quench and grieve the Spirit of God.

Throughout the Bible it says confess, confess, confess, bring it to the light. That's what confession is. If we were to take time to look at that word, it's a bringing to the light something that is unknown or something that was sitting in darkness.

You're bringing it to the light and you're confessing it. You're bringing out their transparency and then God can move through that person. So that's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about spiritual power.

The Holy Spirit shall come upon you and you shall what? Act weird? You shall live boldly for God. You shall witness. You shall have a deep and abiding passion for the truth and you do great things for God.

The Bible, it's clear those who have this spiritual power, they have a deep passion for God's Word. They love God's Word. It's an anchor to their soul. It's the bread to their soul. It's a food. It's a nourishment.

So the demonstration of the Spirit's power is what God is doing through you. The Holy Spirit's power through you. This is interesting. Have you ever heard of Lifeway? They do research. They take polls in the Christian community primarily.

So a new poll that came out. You ready for this? It was in the news this week. Over 50 of Protestant churchgoers. So half the people in this room failed to share the gospel in the last six months. There should be a big gasp on that one.

And it's so funny for me to read all the reasons why. You know, all the excuses and church growth and younger generation and... The bottom line is men and women are not filled with the Spirit of God. That's why this statistic is there.

Because when the Holy Spirit's in you, you have to proclaim who God is and the truth of God. So here's four ways we learned in the past. I want to revisit them again. Why you might be lacking spiritual power.

False Motives for Seeking Spiritual Power

This might be mainly to those in the charismatic community. Number one, you want power to impress people. Man, Lord, fill me with your Spirit. I would be exalted. I would look so spiritual. I've been dying for this.

My wife thinks I don't do anything spiritually. Boy, fill me with the Spirit. Let me show her. Or the wife's praying. Let me just be filled with your power to impress my friends. Or the power to control.

We want to control others. We want to control our situation. And we want that power of God. The power to... So we can exalt ourself. Prove ourselves. Anybody want to prove yourself to your parents or your siblings?

I've been down that road many times. Look at I... Look, look, I'm not stupid. Look, I've arrived. Look, I am spiritual. Look, and we want that... Oh, Lord, fill me so I can impress these people and show them who I really am.

That's not what spiritual power is for. So I'm going to talk to you about three keys to power. Are you ready for this? If you want spiritual power, and again, I don't mean weirdness. I don't mean acting crazy.

I mean actually being bold for God, living for God. And it's so true that that saying, I don't remember who said it, but if you're not willing to live for Christ today, you're not going to die for him tomorrow.

And this boldness is going to be something... I think Christians in our culture today need this boldness. This is why we're the predicament we are in. When did we say the school district can tell our kids what's right and what's wrong and take parental rights away?

When did the government tell us that they can murder children? When did they redefine marriage? What God's Word says... When did all this happen? It's happened under the sleeping of the church. No, no, we're not going to say anything.

We're just going to love people. That's not biblical. The Bible says to be bold, to contend for truth, to say what is right and what is wrong, to love righteousness. Oh man of God, what does God require of you?

But to love justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before your God. There should be a right standard. There should be a stench in our nostrils when we see the direction of the culture and then we're supposed to say nothing?

The lukewarm church won't say anything. They don't want to upset anybody. Hey, they kind of like this. I'll tell you right now, two groups that will not like this, two groups that do not like... Holy Spirit filled believers are carnal Christians and Pharisees.

When you live for God and you're filled with the Spirit of God, you want to do... You want to reach out to the homeless. You want to go start a ministry. You want to pass out things at the mall. You want to walk through the stores and pray with people, maybe buy them groceries and you're still filled with the Spirit of God.

Your carnal friends will say, who do you think you are? Jesus freak? You ever been called that? You're going to leave me hanging out here? Holy roller? Jesus freak, holy roller, super Christian, goody...

I still don't know what that means, but... See, why don't they like that? Because you're showing them what they lack. Those who do not live for Christ do not want to emulate or be friends with those who do.

It's very hard. Now, we should encourage those friendships. We need to come alongside those people. Now, this other side though, the Pharisee doesn't like this either, because they love their Bible, but not people.

They love theology, but they'll never go out and do anything for God. They're not filled with his power and his presence. I explained to the first service, I'm glad I remember this, I want to explain it to you too.

The Church Equips Believers for Ministry

This is just the pep rally. The ball game is out there. The ball game is... Have you ever... I just yesterday drove down Beach Avenue on Lancaster Boulevard. There's wonderful ministry opportunities. I used to do that with gas cards and walk down and pray with people.

Takes a little boldness. Bring somebody. But that's... You can diffuse all that. Hey, man, can I pray with you? We're just here passing out cards, being a blessing to people. And you can go... That's the...

You're going to reach... If you all went out and did that just once, you would reach more people than a year's worth of preaching that I'm doing here to the unreached. If we would just... That's the battlefield.

That's the soil that we need to be planting on. But we think church is it. No, church is where we just get refueled and built up again and ignited. Then we go out and do great things for God. Many people don't know what a pastor's calling is.

My main calling is not counseling. It's not weddings or funerals. Paul is clear. It's to equip the saints to go and do the ministry. And then we go and do the ministry. But according to this, 50 of people aren't even telling people about Jesus.

Can you imagine going six months and never mentioning Jesus? Well, we'll talk about the new contract Mike Trout signed or who the highest paid basketball coach is. We know this. We know the new movie's coming out.

We know the Avengers did this at the box office. Is that still out? No? Maybe? Okay. Yeah. See, I saw something there. But see, we're all excited about that. But when it comes to the things of God, why?

Very simple. What you're filled with is what's going to flow out. What you're filled with is what's going to flow out. So here's the three keys to power. Paul said, I was with you in weakness, fear, and in much trembling.

Dependence on God Through Weakness

And many of you might be saying, what? Wouldn't it say the opposite? Not at all. Paul's being very honest here. Why? I was with you. Paul said, I came to you in weakness. What is weakness? It's the absence of strength.

So meaning Paul came, he said, I didn't come to you in my power, my muscle, my authority, my sturdiness, my toughness. I'm strong. I came to you in total weakness, dependence upon God. Total dependence upon God.

I had an eye-opening experience of this last week. Many of you don't know this unless you're at the first service. But last week was pretty difficult. I wasn't able to sleep as well. Lots going on. We had the new baby, you know, and didn't get to the sermon.

We didn't really even have a chance to work on it much, put a few things together. I was hoping to do it on Friday. It's Saturday. It didn't happen. Sunday morning, I tried to stay at home and it didn't happen.

It was just, Lord, this is going to stink. This is the Easter sermon and this is going to stink. This is terrible. This is nothing for me. It's like, God, I'm just, I'm going, trusting you. And boy, did he move.

Listen to last week's message on finishing strong or on the final words. God just completely took over. He said, finally, Shane, finally, just lay low. Let me take over. Come in weakness and saying total dependence because when you say, God, God, I'm totally dependent upon you.

Unless you move in my marriage, it's hopeless. Unless you move in a church, it's hopeless. Unless you move in my health or rebuild my depression and get rid of my depression and fear, I'm hopeless without you.

God, I have no strength left in this. I can't manage this. I can't handle it. I give it all to you. That's weakness. But see, when I am weak, I am strong. There's something very dynamic that happens when you go and you do something saying, God, I'm not qualified for this.

Because you are qualified as a Christian, unless it's heart surgery or something. Don't mistake what I'm saying. Please be qualified in that. But to do things for God, you often say, I'm not qualified.

I don't have a degree. I don't have this. I don't have that. But if God's calling you, you rest in who He is and what He's going to do through you and in your weakness. Because see, when I'm weak, I'm utterly dependent upon Him.

And I mean that. I mean that. I say, God, unless you do something, this is going to really stink. Because I don't have three points in a nice poem. I need you to move. So there's weakness there. And this is where humility comes into play.

This is why humility is so important. Humility humbles ourself. Humility, you will humble yourself and God will fill you with His Spirit. And then Paul said what? In fear. So I'm in weakness and then I'm in fear.

Well, I thought Christians weren't supposed to fear. Hello, Shane, come on. No, no, no, no, no. Think about what he's saying here. He feared who? God. I came to you fearing God. And because of that, I was trembling.

What happens when you tremble? Have you ever been nervous? I have often on Sundays. Right? See, you move cautiously, trembling. You move slowly, reverently, wisely. You're trembling with fear and trepidation because you're saying, I'm speaking basically, and when you're out there ministering to people, on behalf of the living God.

Have you ever thought about that? That's why I don't like to go way outside of Scripture, you know, because people say, well, do you believe in the rapture? Do you believe in pre-trib, post-trib, mid-trib, pre-wrath, amillennial, all-millennial, premillennial?

He's coming again. We need to be ready. It could get bad. That's what I know. I got to stick with what I know, with what the Bible says. So you move cautiously and trembling. That's why I go over the sermons like, Lord, is this grounded in Scripture?

Is this the heart of Christ? Is this what you want to say to your people? Man, this is going to be hard. How do we build them back up? How do we encourage them? So you come up here in fear and trembling, not like literally, but you're like, oh, God, I hope you move.

I'm just going to stay consistent with what your Word says. So that was Paul's key to power. If you want spiritual power, humble yourself, say, Lord, I am utterly dependent upon you. When we start to look at our abilities, God help us, because there's giftings in people and abilities in people, and when you start to rest in that, you start to lose the power of the Spirit.

I tell worship leaders often, and I've talked to them before, even different churches, make sure you don't rest in your ability. Sure, you can sing. Anointing does not come from your ability. Show me one Scripture where God said, boy, you've got a lot of ability there.

You're going to be anointed. Your ability is a gift. It's a gift from God. You can sing, but the anointing comes from the life you live, your consecration, your surrender, your weakness in yourself and your strength in God, and saying, God, you have to move, and God begins to anoint that person.

The anointing of God, it's another word people misuse, it basically means that a person is filled with God's Spirit and God has anointed them for a task. I've called you to preach. I've called you to do this, and I often rest in this.

I often rest in this often. Many of you know, you've commented before and you've seen the clips, like when Fox News will email me. Actually, this week, Fox and Friends emailed me and asked if I was available this weekend, and they back out sometimes because they get different people.

And if it had not been for this fact that, God, you have called me to do this, you've anointed me to speak to our nation and to speak to the church with love and boldness, you've given me that voice to do that.

You did this. It's not my problem then. You did this, not me. Guess what? You planted the church, not me. You called us here. You planted the church. So there's tremendous comfort in that because then I can walk in here or go do what I've called to do knowing that God says, for such a time as this, I have called you to speak my truth.

Just open your mouth in humility and meekness and let the Spirit of the living God rise up in you and let that anointing go through, and that anointing is going to break the yoke over our nation. Praise God.

That's our only hope. That is our only hope. It's so funny to watch the politicians planning for 2020 as if that's going to calm everything down. That could actually raise things up. That could turn up the heat.

Unrepentant Sin and Grieving the Spirit

Weakness, fearing God, trembling, being filled with God's power, His presence. Let me tell you this up front. All of this is affected or can be affected by besetting and unrepentant sin. If you are caught in an unrepentant, besetting sin, God's Spirit cannot flow through you unless you repent.

Back to weakness. See how this all plays together? The person says, I got this, I got this. It's not really that big a deal. I can deal with this. I can handle it. Yeah, I slip up once in a while. And of course, everybody sins still on this side of the cross.

I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about unrepentant, ongoing, habitual sin that we do not repent from, we do not confess. That will break that line. That will break that line, connection with God, the Holy Spirit.

What do you think quenching and grieving the Spirit is? That's what it is. Quenching, what do you think of a fire? Have you ever had that fire of God in you and then sin quenches it? Or just doing great things for God and...I mean, I've had it to where I've all week worshiping and crying, worshiping and crying in the morning.

Just the presence of God was so thick and the sermon was coming together. And then later on the day, maybe, you know, if me and Morgan have a little spat, that happens, you know, just so you know. We're normal.

Or the kids get on your nerves. Ever happen? Okay. Every day. Amen. Or life happens. Or traffic and you get upset. Now I just went from tremendous high to now I don't even want to go to church Sunday.

Do you know how many times I've had to come here even when I don't feel like it and walk to this pulpit even when I didn't feel like it in the morning? Oh, it's too much to count. But that's why you drag the ball and chain, the flesh, not your spouse.

I caught you there. You drag that flesh. It doesn't pull you. You tell it what to... That's why we sing that song. Yes, I will. What does it say? Yes, I will praise you even in the storm. Yes, I will look to you even though I'm going through hell.

I know heaven hears me. Even though the life doesn't make sense. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are there to hold me. What's it go on to say? Yes, I will. Yes, I will praise him in the storm.

When the rivers come upon me, it will not flood me. Why? Because the spirit of the living God holds me up when I walk through the fire. They will not scorch me and the flames will not burn me. Why? Because I love the living God and I serve him.

So, yes, I will praise him even in this storm. I will praise him even when I'm going through tremendous difficulty. I will praise him even when the doctor says, hey, it does not look good. I will praise him when the court system and the school system and the government is against us.

I will still praise him in this storm. My goodness. We need the spirit of God. Just remember those spiritual powers like a bank account. Just like a bank account, what you're depositing, what are you depositing?

Because that's what comes out. Have you ever done this? Have you ever opened a savings account and put nothing in it and then go check the balance a year later? I did that when I was younger. Or you put $5 in, think it's going to be $5 ,000 in a year.

I heard about interest. How does this work? No. Same thing spiritually, even more so. What is deposited? So that's why this is so important. You get into this, you live in this, and this is deposited into your heart as a man thinketh in his mind so is he.

When I read about the goodness of God and the grace of God, when I read that no army can come against him, when I read that the devil is even his servant. He's God's sovereign over the devil and demons.

When I read Jesus's words that the Holy Spirit has come upon him and he's done great things, and I turn to Acts and it says, the spirit of the living God will come upon you when you wait upon him. And you begin to read that the Holy Spirit and wrote the word, it begins to bubble up inside of you.

You begin to say scriptures throughout the day. That ever happen to you? Oh, no weapon formed against me will prosper. This too shall come to pass. Jesus, you're my anchor, you're my strength. And as the word is deposited, it begins to bubble out.

Same thing with prayer. Prayer strengthens and fortifies. That's why it's so difficult. Think about this. If I say, okay, next Sunday, all I'm teaching on is prayer. I bet our attendance would not be that great.

Actually, I said, I'm not just going to teach, we're just going to practice it. Next Sunday, there's no preaching, just worship and prayer. That doesn't sound fun. You see what we're missing? That's the power.

That's why I often say powerful sermons have to come from the prayer closet, not pop psychology. I get these emails. It's like, download 1 ,000 sermons. You'll be set for 10 years. Like, well, what about if God wants to say something else?

And in that prayer time, in this prayer time, I begin to fill these out all over my wall in my room. I begin to print down these things and then put the sermon together because through that prayer, God is breaking and God is pulling things out and God's saying, preach on hell, but preach on heaven.

Preach on love, show them my grace, but show them how a disobedient people needs to return to me. And scriptures come to mind through the reading of the word and God begins to move in the power and presence of his spirit.

Why? Because what's being deposited in. You want me to just sit and watch Netflix all week? I give you a good movie review sermon. See, what goes in is what's coming out. Same with you. I love the people say, yeah, but you're a pastor, you have to do that.

No, you're a Christian, you should want to. Same thing because let's be honest, the rubber meets the road at home. We can come and shake our heads. I just put together our sermon, okay? Now, it really starts when we get out those doors.

That's when life starts. That's when disobedient children can be difficult or marriage issues or health issues or work issues. I'm praying for people more often now than ever before that are actually in our political offices and our school districts and law enforcement.

Identity, Sin, and the Source of Hope

You would be alarmed at how politically correct we are having to start to be. If you accidentally call someone a he and they really want to be a she, you're going to be in trouble. You could be written up and lose your job.

We have lost our mind. It's a girl. No, she doesn't want to be a girl. It's a girl. No, call her a boy. I can't. What? We've lost our mind. Well, Shane, you're just insensitive. You don't care. No, I care, I love, and I love people.

Point them to the true hope. The true hope is in the cross, not surgery. Many people, many people, many people struggling with identity soon. That fades away when you show them their identity in Christ.

But why do I struggle with this? Well, welcome to sin. Welcome to the struggle. Until you are buried six foot under and with your Savior, you're going to struggle with the flesh that is hell-bent on ruining your testimony.

The Bible says, the carnal mind is in enmity with God. Jeremiah said, who can trust the heart? You trust your heart? It defiles you. It's all wickedness in the heart. That's why be careful that person says, well, I just follow my heart.

How often has that got us in trouble? The Word, prayer. Oh, what about worship? Worship prepares the soil of the heart. That's where spiritual fire comes from, spiritual anointing from God. I don't know if I've ever met anyone that spends time in God's Word, that's in the prayer closet, that's worshiping Him, that's not filled with the Spirit.

Because one or the other will prevail, either the flesh or the Spirit. If a person's seeking God with all their heart, with all their strength, they're going to be filled with God's Spirit. Now, granted, I also believe there are difficult seasons.

I've been times of prayer, especially during fasting and worshiping, it just feels like heaven's brass. God, I don't feel it. I don't fill you. And even in those times, yes, I will. Yes, I will praise you even in this storm.